Rating: 
Summary: I'm insulted. So is the rest of Iowa.
Review: In a writing workshop I attended, 'Waller' was synonymous with 'whore.' No one in Iowa who reads or has a brain will forgive him for this book. I just want to refute a couple of Waller's ideas.1. Iowa is heavily religious, and adultery is a sin. It would have been worse than murder in '65, and 'Francesca' would never have been forgiven. 2. In Iowa, people can write. Our schools are among the nation's best. The Writer's Workshops at the University of Iowa are world-renowned, just ask Vonnegut or Irving. Meredith Willson, from Mason City, wrote a musical, "The Music Man," that's still on Broadway. But Waller isn't from Iowa. He doesn't belong here. And damned if we'll let him speak for us again.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a parody of itself
Review: There are a couple of other hilarious ones, including the Butches of Madison County and the Fridges of Madison county. The latter is my favorite
Rating: 
Summary: The Bridges of Madison County
Review: I got through this book in 3 days.... The story is about two people who find true love. Set in the 1970's, Robert Kincaid is a photographer for National Geographic. He is doing a shoot in Madison County, Iowa, where he finds his true love. Together, over a period of only 4 days, they make all of each other they can. No other love story that I have ever read has been like this. The way the author writes it makes the book so good. The scenes collaborate with each other beautifully. The plot of this story kept me always wanting to want to know what was happening next. " He noticed all of her." (back cover) was the quote that I thought put all of his thoughts of her into one. Although this is a very good book, it is not for everyone. The love scenes are very graphic, and are not appropriate for children. This is a very good book, i would advise everyone to read it sometime. Somehow, the true love plot puts a whole new perspective on love. If you have been happily in love for a long time, consider yourself lucky,...
Rating: 
Summary: Must Read
Review: This is a must read book. Whether you've been in love for years, are just falling in love, or are still waiting for that special person you have to read this book. If you've been in love for years this rekindles the passon, if you are falling in love this explains exactly how youre feeling and if you're still waiting this expresses everything one can hope for. Knowing that it's a true story is the sweetest part. Definately a Must Read
Rating:
Summary: A dusty heart to go along with the dust of a country road
Review: This is a book about true love. Francesca Johnson, an Iowa farm wife, falls in love with Robert Kincaid, a photographer for National Geographic. Neither of them mean for it to happen, but they fall in love for life. This is the first true love story I have ever read. It touched my heart and made me hope for a love like that someday. "I have one thing to say, one thing only; I'll never say it another time, to anyone, and I ask you to remember it: In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how may lifetimes you live." Being of the female gender, I think every women dreams of a man saying things like this to her someday. The idea of him being so certain that she is the one, really made me think. In today's society, with divorce and cheating, the idea of certainty of love really catches my attention. The fact that Robert knew she was his only true love and that he could never love anyone else really does make him an endangered species. Robert was one of the last "cowboys". I loved this book and could not put it down, but I feel that someone too young would not quite grasp the true meaning of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, I can't rate it low enough...
Review: This book is manipulative, predictable, sacharine, wildly overwrought emotional porn. Waller knows how to pull the heartstrings-to a point he's a genius at it, but hasn't the decency to use a feather's touch and let things happen gently. For the reader, "the Bridges" is a masochistic exercise of turning the other cheek to blow after blow from a blunt literary instrument. Waller is not content to let the reader slowly fall into the sadness of love cut short of its full tragectory. In the first few pages he completely delivers his bittersweet emotional package in prose as big as a billboard, then for the remainder of the book relentlessly sledgehammers the message in. Don't read it. Don't buy it. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: This puke ... er, book, will make you puke
Review: I can't believe that there are readers who spent so much time writing paragraphs and paragraphs telling how bad this book is. I'm not saying they're wrong. They're as right as I am writing this review, but are all those words worth this disgusting book.? I only read it because my ladylove liked it so much. I'll give you some reasons why this book is a load of horse manure. The author describes Robert Kincaid as a quiet, shy kind of guy. But boy, can that guy talk. He's one hell of a screwed up protagonist. The worst central character of any work of fiction ever written. That Francesca must have been one desperate woman to even think of having an affair with this self-centered, swollen-headed piece of turd. Compared to the book, the movie's a work of art. It's amazing how the scriptwriter for the movie could have produced a passably good story out of the horse manure that the book is. During an interview the author remained silent when he was asked who his choice of Robert Kincaid would be for the movie. He obviously wanted to be Kincaid. To be honest, he would have suited the role of the aging Francesca better. I cannot believe the man had the audacity to churn out six more pile of dung. The amazing this is, there are folks who read such crap. What's the world coming to!
Rating:
Summary: Moving, indeed.
Review: Actually, it's not simply that it's bad. Bad we can cope with. What's really, really horrific is the way people rave about it, as though it were the lost fifth Gospel. When I was "invited" by my Lady Fair to see the movie with her, I innoculated myself with a heartening tot or two (well, alright. Three.) of Bell's 8 year old. I survived the movie, but only just. I was a weakened, shambling shell of a man for a week or two afterwards, but no permanent harm was done. Then I was "asked" (once again by the Lady Fair)to read the book and report my thoughts. We are still together, but it was touch and go for a while. Imagine a block of super-concentrated caramel. It weighs, say, 8 ounces. Melt it gently in a pot, add three more pounds of sugar, and a healthy handful of saccharine. Allow to set, and call it "The Bridges of Madison County". Oh, the horror. The horror.
Rating:
Summary: Man this book is DOPE.
Review: I just finished scammin the pages of this book, and it was dope. The way that dude just strolled into that poor old house chick's life and they just hit it off and hooked up and stuff, man that was cooool. Those dudes who be dissin' this book is just insecure about themselves, cuz they used to goin behind they honey's back, and they just now realized she can get her swerve on just as good as they can. Now that i have finished this novel, you can bet i'm gonna be hittin some other books by this dude.
Rating:
Summary: An appalling book
Review: This is a terrible book. An insulting book. A dangerous book. It is so bad, so BAD. that it should have been sealed in foil like that dirty book Madonna put out a few years ago that showed pictures of her doing, uh, stuff. Or at least put on one of those "Parental Advisory" labels that frightened parents want plastered all over rap albums. I usually don't scare so easy, but his book shouldn't be left out for idle shoppers to flip through. Don't retailers have any consideration for their customers anymore? So why is this book so bad? You might as well as, why is the ocean so wet? The book is filled with horrors aplenty. I'm not talking about the plot, hokey as it is. Hunky wandering stranger has affair with lonely neglected housewife. A good writer could do something with this, if he/she really wanted to. Waller is not a good writer. He is not a bad writer. He is the worst writer ever. Since the day when Sumerians first scratched symbols on clay tablets there has not been a more banal, insipid, nauseating writer than this guy. To say that he can't write is incorrect. Oh, he can write. He knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote this dreck. He's not like those thousands of monkeys hammering away at typewriters for all eternity trying to write the complete works of Shakespeare. No, Waller actually had the INTENT to write this abomination. There are paragraphs in this book too horrible to mention, sentences that will leaving you gasping and grabbing blindly for something sturdy to cling to. The sheer incompetence is awesome to behold. I can't give examples of how bad it is because I would end up transcribing the entire book. How he was able to write this book without becoming becoming paralyzed with shame is beyond me. Well, if you have no shame... And believe me, I know all about awful writing. I was a writing major and went through 3 fiction workshops full of oblivious and overconfident twentysomethings (I was one of them). I have read some truly abysmal crap in my day. And if you think I'm dissing this book after flipping through a few pages, oh no, no no no. I was dating a young lady and we went over her place to watch a movie (she rented "It Could Happen to You", featuring the appalling Rosie Perez. But that's a review for another day). Entering her place my eyes were drawn to her coffee table as though there was a bloated corpse lying on it. It was the book. I made a kind of shrieking noise, and it took my friend some time to coax me from under her dining room table, where I was of course cowering in terror. She told me that this was her FAVORITE book of all time and that I just HAD to read it. Caving in to a woman yet again I did as I was told. I read the whole thing in one sitting, with an expression on my face that you'd expect to see on someone who just saw a passenger train derail. When I returned the book my friend asked, "Did you cry at the end?" Oh, I cried, I cried. We broke up shorty after that (actually, about 8 seconds after that). But I'm pretty sure that the girl I just married read and loved "BMC". And that scares me. Any editor with a brain larger than a pecan could see that this book was garbage. Yet some big publisher bought it, marketed the heck out of it, and made it into one of the most popular books OF ALL TIME. Waller wrote like 6 more books and did an album and all sorts of horrid things thanks to this book. Doesn't anyone else see that this is evil? How many good books about love and loss went unread because millions were burdened with this book. All that waste, all that senseless waste...I can't bear to think about it.
| 
